Army to bring more torture charges

Army prosecutors are set to bring charges in up to seven more cases of Iraqis being tortured and abused by British soldiers.

Criminal actions are believed to be likely over one incident in which a man was allegedly beaten to death in custody and another where an Iraqi civilian was shot dead.

The moves follow the announcement of the first courts martial of soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers over alleged abuses including assault, indecent assault and prejudicing good order and military discipline. Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said three cases were "actively being considered" while another four were likely to be referred to prosecutors soon.

Charges - possibly of murder - are thought to be likely over the death in custody of Iraqi hotel receptionist Baha Mousa, whose case featured in a shocking Red Cross report.

The news came as a powerful alliance of American diplomats and generals prepared to launch a scathing attack on President George Bush's invasion of Iraq. The group is to release a statement accusing him of undermining the safety of the US and wrecking years of patient diplomacy in the Middle East.

Names include some of the most respected figures in Washington circles - including former CIA director Admiral Stansfield Turner and America's former top military officer, William Crowe, who chaired the joint chiefs of staff.

Another member, former ambassador to Israel William Harrop, said the Iraq war had ruined a "lifetime's work" in making America more influential in the region. Calling themselves Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, the group claims Mr Bush's policies have made the US more

isolated and less safe, and damaged its

standing in the world.

In Britain, the announcement of prisoner abuse courts martial came as the American general suspended over abuses involving US troops at Abu Graib jail blamed her conduct on senior intelligence officers.

Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski told the BBC she was ordered to treat inmates "like dogs" to help interrogators. She claimed current Iraqi prisons chief Major-General Geoffrey Miller - who was in charge at Guantanamo Bay - visited her in Baghdad and said: "At Guantanamo Bay we learned that the prisoners have to earn every single thing that they have.

"He said they are like dogs and, if you allow them to believe at any point that they are more than a dog then you've lost control of them."

Photographs showing naked Iraqi detainees being humiliated and maltreated first started to surface in April,

sparking shock and anger across the world.

The investigation of abuse by the British fusiliers came to light when an squaddie took an undeveloped film to a Happy Snaps shop in Staffordshire.

Staff called the police on seeing images said to show naked and gagged Iraqis, including one hoisted in a net from a fork-lift truck. Soldiers are alleged to have forced victims into real or simulated sex acts between themselves.

One of those involved was reported to be Gary Bartlam, 19, a member of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, questioned by military police last May over the photographs.

  • One of the two Britons killed in yesterday's Baghdad car blast was a London- born Falklands veteran. Ex-paratrooper Keith Butler, 42, who was was working as a guard for Mayfair firm Olive Security, was among at least 12 people who died in the suicide bombing.

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